• kameecoding@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/1/27/how-much-does-a-mile-of-road-actually-cost

    for railways it’s 1-2 million by most estimates, of course land acquisition has to be talen into account too but that’s true for roads too.

    then there are the efficiency and maintaince costs. first of all if you are building tracka you can electrify it right away meaning you have a very green mode of transporting both people and cargo.

    and efficiency wise google says trains are 3-4x more efficient than trucks (semis)

    you also have to consider the electrification of trucks, if you need trucks to go across the country to hail stuff, eiher they need large batteries, which is more weight and thus more wear and tear on the roads or you need to maintain an extremely inefficient Hydrogen ecosystem which has 30% or so efficiency compared to the 85-90% of BEVs.

    wouldn’t it make more sense to havw smaller semis with less range and thus smaller batteries that just hauls stuff in the final miles? from the cargo train depot to the intended destination?